Undercover journalist exposes illegal low pay in hotel

An undercover investigation has revealed some hotel staff are being paid as little as £1.50 per hour – a fraction of the £5.05 minimum wage.

A Sky News reporter spent six days working for a Jury’s Inn hotel in Southampton and was paid just £58, which works out at an hourly rate of about £1.50.

The reporter was hired as a housekeeper at the hotel, part of a chain of 20, after contacting employment agency Foremost Logistics Services.

Most of the staff at the hotel worked an average of around six hours a day, cleaning rooms, the investigation revealed. But at £1.80 per room, they would need to clean 17 a day to earn more than the average wage.

Paul Sellers, a minimum wage adviser with the TUC, said: “Frankly, I’m horrified. Simply everybody should be able to get the minimum wage.”

When Sky confronted Foremost Logistics Services, it apologised and said there had been a “serious communications collapse”.

The agency said that the reporter would be given his full legal entitlement of £5.05 an hour.

The hotel said in a statement: “Jurys Doyle Hotel Group would expect as a matter of course that contractors fulfil their contractual obligations and abide by all regulatory requirements at all times.”